


Casket Songs

by Ketakoshka



Series: Dread Child Jon [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Breekon and Hope abandon poor Jon, Buried!jon, Flower Crowns, Gen, It/Its Pronouns For The Beholding (The Magnus Archives), Jon's a teenager, Monster Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Separation Anxiety, The coffin, They/Them Pronouns For The Stranger (The Magnus Archives)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25966825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ketakoshka/pseuds/Ketakoshka
Summary: The story of Daisy's sectioning is a tragedy, or it would have been if there wasn't someone else in the coffin when her partner was pushed in.-In other words, Jonathan is the Dread Child of the Buried, and he doesn't like when humans are thrown in the coffin while he's sleeping.
Relationships: Alice "Daisy" Tonner & Jonathan Sims, Issac Masters & Alice "Daisy" Tonner, The Beholding & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, The Buried & Jonathan Sims
Series: Dread Child Jon [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1884709
Comments: 16
Kudos: 315





	Casket Songs

"As of this moment forward, you two are bound by Section 31."

It's an unfortunate fate for any police officer, and most spend their entire careers trying to avoid it… but for Officers Issac Masters and Alice "Daisy" Tonner, they feel lucky to both be standing before the chief.

It was so close… one of those brutish monsters was going to throw Issac into the coffin… it was going to kill him… but then there was a boy pushing Issac out, and the movers ran, leaving them all alone with a coffin and a boy who sprouts flowers.

"What about him?" Daisy asks, her gaze flickering over to the small teenager sitting so still in the small, secret interrogation room. The ground around his feet is covered in dirt and sprouting leaves.

The chief shakes his head and looks through the window. "It's not the first time he's been here, and I doubt it'll be the last." He hits the call button. "What were you doing before you saved Officer Masters tonight, Jonathan?"

Jon opens his eyes suddenly: a rich, reddish brown like rusty clay, and looks over at the window… or perhaps through the window. He smiles so serenely, and his head sprouts honeysuckle alongside the ever present xeranthemums. "Hello, Colin. It's so lovely to hear from you again."

"Answer the question please, Jon."

Jon huffs, but after muttering a bit about no one having time for pleasantries anymore, he finally says, "I was sleeping… Occasionally, the coffin gets moved while I'm asleep since mother is fucking paranoid." He stands up suddenly, and Daisy can see the way the vines curl over his clothes and wind tighter around a human's most vulnerable areas. "I woke up because of the noise… and then Hope was trying to throw him in the coffin… I know people get thrown in there sometimes; I can hear them gasping for breath, but I don't like when people are thrown in while I'm in there." He crosses his arms tightly, allowing bright purple flowers to bloom along his shoulders. "They're not supposed to do that… mother said that they wouldn't… but they tried to anyways…" His big brown eyes look worried. "Is he and the other lady okay, Colin? I hope I didn't scare them too much… I tried not to make the area too claustrophobic… I just wanted them to be safe until more humans came."

After a moment of silent conversation, the chief leads Issac and Daisy into the room, and Jon visibly brightens. "Hello, Officer Masters, Officer Tonner. I hope I didn't scare you too much!"

Daisy fights down the last dregs of terror and offers up a little smile for the teen. "Been better, but we're okay… Your name is Jon, right?"

Jon nods enthusiastically. "Well, I like the name Jon… so that's what I go by."

"Can I ask you some questions?" Issac eventually inquires to which Jon only nods. "How old are you?"

"I'll be fifteen in December!"

"Why were you sleeping in the coffin?"

"Safe… for me. No one can get me, and it's closed off and small… and nice."

"Where did… Breekon and Hope take you from?"

Jon taps at his chin in the perfect pantomime of a child trying to look thoughtful. "I believe I was in Yorkshire last… but maybe that was the time before last… I don't know. Wherever I was, it wasn't for long."

"What are you?"

Jon looks at the ground where peat moss has begun inching up the walls. He hugs himself tighter as more foliage curls around him, cocooning him against a worrisome environment. "I…" He worries at his lower lip until it splits open, spilling something remarkably water-like down his chin. "The words are hard… I suppose I am a part of her… but also not. I am her child, but I was not born of two parents, only one."

There's a sudden pressing weight in the room… the weight of being watched, and Jon looks enlightened.

Upon seeing the humans' unease, he quickly explains, "don't worry. That was my Avaunt, Beholding." Slowly the watching draws away. "It wanted to help me explain…" He sits back in the chair furthest from them, and up from the old wooden table comes a sprig of wisteria; he quite likes this flower.

"The common terms for them are the Fears, the Dread Horrors, the Entities, or even the Eldritch Fear Monsters… I am the child of one such creature." One finger runs down the sprig so very gently. "Many things in this world, unexplainable things come from them interacting with this plane… I didn't though. I simply came into being within the embrace of my mother and only from her. Avaunt Beholding is one of my few… aunts and uncles that truly care for my continued existence… Nini Stranger's pretty good to me; Breekon and Hope belong to them, so who knows if they'll live much longer after abandoning me… Uncle Vast scares me sometimes… too open, but he would be sad if I died… I think Aunt Lonely and Aunt Web would be sad too… Maybe Aunt Corruption… but I don't know…"

Daisy startles Jon when she softly asks, "and which one is your mother?"

The sprig of wisteria has withered by the time he looks back at it, but another sapling grows in its stead. He smiles at it and then at Daisy with reverent affection in his heart. "She has many names… but I suppose most of them do… Choke, Too Close I Can't Breathe, the Centre, Forever Deep Below Creation, and the Buried… My aunts and uncles call her the Swaddler though… I think that's a better name… because she keeps me so safe and close in her coffin… or in the tunnels… or in the smallest of places…"

From the center of his palm, Jon grows an iridescent flower that's unmistakably a daisy. "Here." He holds it out to Daisy who only pauses a moment before taking it. "Keep it close to you… If you're ever scared in someplace small and dark and crushing, I can come and find you… or my mother will… and you'll be safe." He holds out another flower to Issac, this one peony. "You'll be safe too… Just like Colin is… and my friends Martin and Sira…"

Then in a crashing weight of dust and dirt and decaying plants, Jon disappears.

**Author's Note:**

> Avaunt and Nini are nonbinary equivalents for aunt/uncle. Avaunt sounds really regal and idk, but that's a pretty Beholding kind of thing.


End file.
